Counselors: Clothing Program Boosts Self-Esteem

Through the eyes of school counselors, the Children’s Service League not only clothes students in need, but provides a welcome boost to their self-esteem.

Through the eyes of school counselors, the Children’s Service League not only clothes students in need, but provides a welcome boost to their self-esteem.

“One of our students’ basic needs, of course, is food, shelter and safety,” Tilles Elementary School counselor Deanna Griffey said. “But part of that is being clothed. They need to feel like they fit in. When they feel like they fit in, they’ll perform better in school. They’ll have more success.”

The Children’s Service League, housed in a former school, provides free clothing and shoes to Fort Smith children in need.

The League is the 2013 recipient of the annual Times Record Community Christmas Card, which allows readers to “sign” the card before it’s printed in the Christmas Eve edition. Names will be printed for $2 per name, with the money being donated to the League; each year, the card benefits a local nonprofit.

“It’s just amazing,” Griffey said. “They get hats, gloves, belts if they need it. It’s actual clothes that fit them. They get to try them on. They have a choice in what they get. The kids just come back beaming.”

Carnall Elementary School counselor Lisa Bartmier is also an advocate of the program.

“It definitely raises their self-esteem,” she said. “In fact, that’s one of the reasons we refer some of the children, just to help them with that issue.”

New to the Fort Smith School District this year, Griffey said she was immediately impressed with the League and its program.

“I think it’s wonderful,” she said. “The kids that have been referred to the Children’s Service League, I can’t tell you how it changes their lives. I’m just in awe of it, coming from a smaller (school) district. It’s just a neat, neat thing they’ve got going.”

Parents also benefit from the program, Griffey said.

“Clothes are expensive, but some parents just can’t afford them, so the kids do without,” she said. “They wear the same clothes over and over. That’s what teachers look for — kids who are really in need, who only have a couple of sets of clothes they wear.”

Bartmier described the program as seasonal.

“It seems like once the weather changes, somebody will usually come in not wearing the right kind of clothing for the season, which is really a head’s up for us,” she said. “A lot of the times a teacher will come to me or say something about that.”

Teachers, Griffey added, typically choose the children referred to the League.

“The teachers know,” she said. “There a lot of kids who don’t have very nice clothes. But the kids who don’t have hardly anything are the ones we pick. The teachers don’t take it lightly. They really watch and nominate students who they feel are the neediest.”

Parents also inquire about the program, Griffey said.

“I have to tell them it’s teacher-nominated only,” she said. “When I do have a parent call in, I email the teacher and let her know the parents called and to be on the lookout. Sometimes it’s a parent who says their child has outgrown all their clothes.”

Nominated students go to the League building, at the district’s Parker Center, to choose clothes.

“They’ll take like maybe three students at a time, if we have that many, or even one student,” Griffey said. “… It’s a big room, and they’ve got all kinds of clothes and shoes. It’s all organized. It’s a really neat experience for the kids. They get to try on the clothes and see what they look like in them.

“It’s like going to a store.”

She added that students “are not picky.”

“They don’t have to have expensive clothes, just some clothes that fit them,” Griffey said. “It’s a good program. I feel like more people need to know about it so they can donate if they can.”

The bottom line, Darby Junior High School counselor Kelly Daniels said, is that the Children’s Service League helps provide students “with their basic needs.”